Careers in The Netherlands

Aegon celebrates our sphere builder's 80th birthday

January 15, 2019•3 minute read

Aegon is proud to join in marking the 80th birthday of Peter Struycken, pioneering visual artist and creator of the iconic sphere structure at our headquarters.

Key points

Visual artist Peter Struycken turns 80

Kasteel Wijlre to host new 3D painting and solo exhibition in March

Aegon opens three-dimensional color structure to the public

Since 1986 official visitors to Aegon's corporate headquarters have entered the atrium under Struycken's intriguing Three-dimensional Color Structure. The artwork simultaneously dominates and blends into the building's surroundings.

Now, for the first time, members of the public can sign up to visit 'the spheres', along with a wide selection of other contemporary artworks at Aegon.

Part of the Struycken birthday celebrations, the tours are also the latest initiative by Aegon to make its corporate art collection more accessible to the wider public. Other recent examples are participating in the Out of Office corporate art exhibition in the Singer Laren Museum (runs to April 7, 2019) and supporting the Escher's Journey exhibition in 2018.

The celebration of Struycken's milestone birthday begins on March 10, 2019 at a location where he has had a long association: Kasteel Wijlre, an estate in the south of the Netherlands that showcases culture and landscape.

A new 3D painting by Struycken will cover the interior of the estate's Hedge House art pavilion and a solo exhibition by the artist will be held in the Coach House at Kasteel Wijlre.

The transformation, according to Kasteel Wijlre, consists of a painting that covers all of the building's floors, walls and ceiling. The red, black and white areas of color will change the experience of the architecture of Wiel Arets, who designed the Hedge House.

Struycken previously designed such a transformation in 2005 as part of the exhibition A Guest + a Host = a Ghost at the Kasteel Wijlre estate. But Struycken has never before created a painted work on this scale, and for the first time, the Hedge House is using its space for a spatially all-encompassing artwork.

Sponsor

Aegon is a sponsor of the Struycken project at the estate. "I am very pleased with our partnership with Aegon," says Brigitte Bloksma, director of the Kasteel Wijlre estate. "The company makes the realization of the project at the Kasteel Wijlre estate possible, and thereby contributes to making the work of one of the most prominent artists in the Netherlands visible to a wide audience."

The second element of Aegon's involvement is the public tours. Struycken's monumental work Three-dimensional Color Structure at Aegon's HQ consists of 5,212 aluminum spheres in 32 colors. The guided tours will take place on two Sundays, on 24 March and 26 May, bringing attendees along both Struycken's structure and other significant works in Aegon's art collection.

"Peter Struycken's color structure has been one of Aegon's most impressive works of art for over thirty years. The work is a source of inspiration and ensures that the gigantic hall is a pleasant space to be in. We are proud that we have this artwork in our collection and see the cooperation with Kasteel Wijlre as an excellent opportunity to let more people enjoy this piece," says Lianne Schipper, curator of the Aegon art collection.

Photo (left to right): Brigitte Bloksma, director of Kasteel Wijlre, and Lianne Schipper, curator of the Aegon art collection, shake hands in front of Peter Struycken's three-dimensional Color Structure in the atrium of the Aegon headquarters.

Three-dimensional Color Structure

How can you describe the artwork? Looking at the coloured aluminium spheres, various associations come to mind. For some they represent clouds, for others a piece of the galaxy. Although perhaps not visible at first sight, this artwork has a mathematical connotation. Struycken developed a computer program (in the eighties) in which he let three sine waves (a mathematical curve that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation) run through the atrium space.

Every wave represented one of the three colours: red, green or blue. At the points where the three waves intersected, a dot was marked in the program and coloured according to the values of red, green and blue. The many dots from the program were then translated to the coloured spheres that light up Aegon's main hall.

The best way to get to know Struycken's iconic structure at Aegon is to sign up for the tours (places are limited).

Bonus

Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how you clean over 5,000 spheres and keep them looking so shiny and new.

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